From DE 39 35 746 A1 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,364) a method and a device for the mechanized suspension of sausage products is known. In the process, a transfer device consisting of two initially congruent, adjacent, pivotable, partial hooks, engages the suspension element formed by a thread loop and removes the sausage product from the clip machine. Then the two hooks of the transfer device are pivoted from the removal position, in which the sausage product was removed from the clip machine, into a transfer position. The two hooks are then separated at the same time.
In the transfer position the sausage product is transferred to a conveyor element of an endless conveyor. The conveyor elements have two spaced hooks for this at their lower end, with the distance between them being less than the distance of the spread hooks of the transfer device. The hooks of the conveyor element engage the spread loop of the sausage products and then remove it from the transfer device. The transfer device can then be rotated further until it reaches its initial position in which the partial hooks lie next to one another.
By means of the conveyor element the sausage product suspended from it is placed on a storage rod fixed on one side. For that the conveyor element is conducted parallel past the storage rod so that the loop is threaded onto the rod. Once a specific position is attained, a press beam presses the hooks of the conveyor elements down so far that the loop of the sausage products is placed on the rod. Then the conveyor element is moved along further so that the hooks disengage from the loop so that the sausage product remains in the appropriate position on the rod. Then the hooks are unloaded by lifting the press beam.
A disadvantage of this known device is that the alignment of the transfer device to the removal position on the clip machine and to the conveyor element located in the transfer position must be extremely precise. Even the slightest deviations can lead to the loops of the transfer device either not being picked up in the removal position on the clip machine and/or not being transferred in the transfer position to the conveyor elements.
Even discontinuous conveyance by halting the conveyor elements for the takeover of the sausage products from the transfer device proves to be detrimental, since swinging movements of the sausages suspended from other conveyor elements can be triggered by the stopping and restarting of the endless conveyor, which leads to additional stresses on the transport unit. Furthermore, the press beam, which causes the lowering of the hooks of the conveyor elements, must extend the entire length of a storage rod, since it can only distribute the sausage products along the entire storage rod by lowering the hooks of a conveyor element. Finally, exact halting of the conveyor elements is required to assure even spacing of the sausage products on the storage rod.